Originally, the announced Crimson Map Pack for Halo 4 was due for release this past Monday, November 10th, and while that plan was executed upon to a certain degree there were complications with its launch.

Those of you who participated in the ‘14 Day, Buy and Play’ programme (which seemed to have come and gone without much noise) were meant to get Halo 4’s first downloadable content for free, but it seems as though that option was accidentally opened up to everyone, before being spotted and shut down by Microsoft.

Now, the Crimson Map Pack is available as a complimentary download if you would like a preview of the three-map content, but if you haven’t bought it access will be revoked on December 18th – a statement from Microsoft reads:

“There were some initial complications with the distribution of the ‘14 day, Buy and Play’ reward tokens, and so we decided to provide the additional reward of complimentary access to the Crimson Map Pack, for a limited time, as a ‘thank you’ to our customers that contributed to the success of the Halo 4 launch.”

“Consumers that own the Halo 4 Map Pass via standalone purchase or the Limited Edition will not be impacted and will continue to have access to the content after the complimentary access period ends on Tuesday, December 18 at 9am UTC/GMT,” the statement continued.

And what about Spartan Ops, Halo 4’s weekly co-operative, story-based missions? After the first five episodes were released on schedule, the series is taking a break until 2013 when the remaining five entries will become available from January 21st.

343 Industries’ Frank O’Connor has said that a second season of Spartan Ops is being considered, although it’s anything but a certainty. As we wait for confirmation on the continuation of Spartan Ops, you can watch the teaser trailer for the second half of Season 1: